2 phones on 2 carriers. Cuz thatz hows I roll.

Very nice. I miss the days of having two to three phones over two carriers. Verizon and ATT, right?

**BRENT**

Yup. I love using the GS3 as a hotspot.

Yeah, I can see that being great. LTE in your area should be great, with the crapload of cash they put into that market to upgrade the towers. Hope you'll have service in your office.

**BRENT**

Also, how bad is your eyesight? That screen res is horrible.

It's really fucking bad, and so is my eyesight. The latter is getting worse every day. I couldn't tell the difference between porn and emoticons without glasses. Seriously considering seeing if I qualify for Lasik.

I have to admit, the touchscreen (and the phone, for that matter) is finally beginning to fail and I am looking at getting a new one, but thinking of going cheap and getting a Pantech Marauder or Lucid or Rhyme or some such.

Get the best thing they offer, otherwise you'll hate it in a year

Incorrect. I didn't hate the Droid after a year, and I got it 'cause it was free.

Peter, if you can stomach the head-fi-like idoicy of XDA Forums you can find a lot of really good deals on lightly used phones there. Imagine hoards of kids buying new phones every 6 months (maybe quicker) and selling whatever barely used piece of yesterday's fastest tech at a decent loss. If I hadn't had a Verizon upgrade that was quickly being rendered useless by their new plans that's the route I would have gone. Actually, I did got that way (bought a Rezound) and then quickly sold it and picked up the GSIII.

So I'd have to transfer my SIM card...wait, I don't have a SIM card?

Yes, want. Will look into it. Thanks.

I recently updated my Nook Color to the Alpha of CM10 posted on the XDA forums, and for the first time, I feel it's truly a useful Android device. It's still clearly not that quick, but all the bugs, and a good deal of the slowness present on GB and ICS are gone. I picked it up on a whim for about $100 last year, and have only occasionally toyed around with it, but it's going to get a lot more usage now.

Ironically, it might just end up being the oldest/slowest device that will ever see a build of Jelly Bean. Which is too bad, considering there are tons of devices out there with better specs than the 1Ghz SoC and 512MB RAM in the Nook Color, which could benefit tremendously from JB, and have their useful lifespans greatly extended. But I guess that's not really in the financial plans of the powers that be.

Hubby got the Galaxy S iii tonight. Any suggestions for battery life. Is the LTE going to suck the battery life out of it? They also had the Galaxy Note 2 to demo (and said it was available starting tomorrow) but it was just too big - like using a small tablet as a phone. The GSiii is way to big for me but hubby always complains that the keys on my phone are too small so hopefully this will be a good size for him. Hopefully the GSiii is new enough that it will be zippy for a couple of years.

Bah. Big long reply, then I lost it.

Anyways, Scott will chime in soon re: battery, but that's the best Android phone on the market right now, and if the Note 2 is out of the picture, there's nothing better. You should be able to get through the day easily with that phone, I'd say. Everyone has gotten more efficient with their radio use since LTE has matured a little, so I wouldn't worry too much. You'll probably throw it on the charger every night, but that's something people do whether iPhone, Android, whatever.

The GS3 and Note 2 are the flagship phones. Either one of them should last a while, especially for a first timer. You (he?) made a good buy.

**BRENT**

Note 2 with Sprint =

$300, 16gb only version available WITH 2 year contract? Plus no ETA for LTE for Los Angeles? I guess I'll be waiting longer.

Edited October 26, 201213 yr by Edwood

Just get the T-Mobile version. It's pretty spiffy. Anandtech confirmed (and The Verge took it a step further) that it does have LTE, and will just need a software update to work. I went to check it out in store the day before they were released.

Oh, look, there's one by my laptop too.

Did a quick speedtest whilst driving. On non-LTE "4G" I got 15404kbps down, 2743kbps up, while driving. Wifi speeds of 23147/15751 over a 5Ghz N network.

Sadly, the S Pen doesn't have the awesome little magnetic latching that the last Note II I played with had. It's a beast, though. I need a case. I'm scared of it getting de-perfected.

**BRENT**

So Nexus 4 announced 66 hours after I get Galaxy Note II. Grrr...

Any thoughts on it? Anyone gonna snag one?

**BRENT**

Probably going to get one for my brother. Can't you return your phone within the 15 day window for no charge?

no LTE.

Looks Good

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/nexus-best-of-google-now-in-three-sizes.html

unlocked quad band (GSM) world phone $299 direct from Google

https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_4_8gb

Maybe this whole Device is separate from network is separate from carrier is separate from contract or (PAYG) (AKA price transparency) will catch on in the US. And people making purchasing decisions based on TCO would spur competition.

And with Google voice you can keep one virtual phone number to hand out , and swap physical phone numbers at will ... to what ever's cheapest. Or just use VOIP via wifi ...

Nah, that's crazy talk!

50$ restocking fee I think. Not sure if I like that or note better.

LTE is not a big deal for me since T Mobile doesn't have it yet but the Galaxy Note 2 does have LTE built in. Loving the note so far though.

no LTE.

Because ...

http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/29/3569688/why-nexus-4-does-not-have-4g-lte

Sometimes the only winning move is not to play

No stylus = no fun!

I like the aggressive pricing without contract and since I still have a year to go on my current phone it's rather tempting.

"...Samsung’s Exynos™ 1.6 GHz quad-core processor..." vs. Up To "...1.7 GHz Quad-core Krait..."

1280x720 vs. 1280x768

Hmmm...

But the LTE may be a deciding factor, if it were me instead of Brent.

But I'm more likely to keep looking for a comparable or slightly weaker CPU in favor of moar pixelses. 'cause I'm a real estate whore.

"...Samsung’s Exynos™ 1.6 GHz quad-core processor..." vs. Up To "...1.7 GHz Quad-core Krait..."

1280x720 vs. 1280x768

Hmmm...

But the LTE may be a deciding factor, if it were me instead of Brent.

But I'm more likely to keep looking for a comparable or slightly weaker CPU in favor of moar pixelses. 'cause I'm a real estate whore.

Then why not get a nexus 10 ...

"Nexus 10 is the highest resolution tablet on the planet with a 10.055" display at 2560-by-1600 (300ppi), that's over 4 million pixels right in your hands."

https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_10_16gb

and tether to your existing phone?

I like the way you think.

Except I kind of need a new phone, also.

AMOLED vs IPS.

If you're waiting for a new phone, you're going to be be happy to know (if you didn't already) there are some 1080p phones coming down the pipeline.

With me, it's more cost vs longetivity of the device. Either of these is going to last a while. T-Mobile doesn't have LTE yet. It's not slated to roll out til late 2013. If you look at the price of the Note 2 vs the Nexus 4, you could have an N4 now, and if there is say, an N5 out at the same price, you could have two phones, including an updated one a year down the road. I figure quad core 2+ghz + possibly LTE. Just a thought.

Also, I'm getting 15Mbps down/1.6-2.7Mbps for the first 3 speed tests over the first two days I had the phone, over HSPA+ 42. It actually fared well against LTE to date. It's plenty fast enough for me for mobile use.

Oh, if I didn't mention it, I switched from 5GB with tethering (25$/mo) to Unlimited with (legit) tethering (25$/mo). That data plan isn't supposed to exist. The 10GB + tethering plan is 30$ more. I don't know how it happened, but I'm pretty happy about it. I'm gonna work on taxing the system at work this week.

Oh, I got 26 hours of battery life after my first 0%-100%-0% rundown. Not too shabby, but I was hearing better. We'll see in the coming days.

**BRENT**